|  A little long but worth it....it will melt your heart
I remember my first Christmas adventure with Nana. I was just a kid. I
remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big
sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even
dummies know that!"
My Nana was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day
because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Nana always told the
truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when
swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns. I knew they were
world-famous, because Nana said so. It had to be true.
Nana was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her
everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus!" she snorted.
"Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years,
and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let's go."
Go? Go where, Nana?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous,
cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store
in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through
its doors, Nana handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days.
"Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it.
I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but
never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and
crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a
few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten- dollar bill,
wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids
at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out,
when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and
messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs.Pollock's grade-two class.
Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for
recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the
teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't
have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with
growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!
I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm,
and he would like that. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady
behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes," I
replied shyly. "It's .... for Bobby." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn't
get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry
Christmas.
That evening, Nana helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons (a
little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) and
wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it -- Nana said that Santa always
insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house,
explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's
helpers.
Nana parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept
noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Nana gave me a
nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."
I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on
his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and
Nana. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to
open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.
Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering,
beside my Nana, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those
awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Nana said they were:
ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.
I still have the tag from that coat, (tucked inside my Bible now.) It was
$19.95.
He who has no Christmas in his heart will never find Christmas under a tree.
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